Quick Links

You are here

What did the ancient Muskogees believe about 2012?

Submitted by chief on Mon, 09/03/2012 - 12:30

To answer this question, you must first understand the Muskogean Calendar is not measuring from some past event, but it is measuring to a future event!

When Muskogean ancestors were formulating the calendar from the long accumulated astronomical observations of countless generations, they became aware of the precession of the equinoxes. As is evident from the Green Corn Ceremony, the summer solstice is the Muskogean New Year. Ceremonies are set on new moons to symbolize new beginnings and emphasize solar over lunar influence. They used the fifth return of Venus on the eighth year to regulate the calendar cycle and their Great Year marks sunspot cycles.

This sketch of a gorget found by Spiro at Etowah Mounds has many calendar associations. This culture was a precursor of the historic era Muskogean people. Notice the bird qualities of the seated figure. This suggest a celestial connotation. The four “feathers” on each side refer to two four unit periods of time. In each feather are two circles demarcating a total of sixteen years. Thus, each set of feathers is eight years or for a total of two Venus cycles of five returns each. The talons of the figure each grip a half circle as if in the process of joining them. This implies that the figure represents the imminent completion of the sixteenth year -- two Venus cycle time periods. The seated figure itself forms a pentagram (five pointed star) again a depiction of Venus. The seated figure symbolizes the sun -- note the sets of three including the talons, bi-lobed wrist cuffs, and antler headdress. These suggest the three sunrises and three sunset positions while the eleven bead necklace suggests sunspot cycles. Thus the seated figure symbolizes the summer solstice sun (which is the fifth return of Venus on the eight year).

They also considered the Milky Way to be the home of the Creator and their ancestors. The dark rift of the Milky Way is the way of the dead.

So what future event is the calendar tracking? The calendar is pointing to the day when Venus returns as the Morning Star heralding the summer solstice on a new moon at the same time the earth and the sun are aligned with the dark rift of the Milky Way and its galactic center. In Western terms, the specific time of the event is at sunrise on June 20th, 2012.

In early June of 2012, the Pleiades make their heliacal rising. On June 6th, Venus makes both an inferior conjunction and a transit. On June 10th, the heliacal rising of Venus occurs. The new moon occurs on June 19th and the Summer Solstice is the following day, on June 20th. All of the above events occurs as the sun and earth are aligned with the galactic center during a year in which sunspots are supposed to be at their maximum stage in the sunspot cycle. Such a summer solstice alignment (with the Way of the Dead) only occurs every 25,920 years.

Thus, June 19th of 2012 is the 365th day of the 64th year of the 405th sixty-four-year cycle of the Muskogee Calendar. Consequently, sunrise on June 20th 2012 is the dawn of the first day of the first year of the first sixty-four-year cycle of the 405 sixty-four-year cycles of the precession of the equinoxes. In other words, June 20, 2012 marks the beginning of a new cycle which is repeated every 25,920 years.

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Nene Hutke 2012 Muskogee Calendar and has been reprinted here as a reference. To learn more about the Nene Hutke Calendar, visit the For Sale area of our website.